Monday, June 18 through Sunday June 24, 2018 Jewel Basin

On Mondays - we try to do a bang up job after the week-end. We cleaned the latrine, picked up trash and did our regular chores. We also did laundry and dumped our black and gray tanks (RV).  Then we walk and sit under the awning and watch the boaters, swimmers, fishermen, and floaters. This can be quite entertaining!

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Tuesday we also did chores and Steve did some weed eating. Then we packed our backpack with snack, water, bug spray and bear spray and drove up to Jewel Basin. This is a place that you get to by driving up the forest road to near the top of the mountain. Our elevation here is around 3,000 feet, but  where we went to on the mountain was 5,500 feet. It was also cool up there. The snow had not melted. We did not get all the way to the ranger station at Jewel Basin due to the snow pack on the road. We will try again in a couple of weeks. There were lots of cars up there and no place for us to walk. We we drove back down a bit and got our dogs out. There were chipmunks there that drove Zoey insane!  She loves hunting! We drove further back down the mountain and walked the dogs some more, but we got  tired and decided to start back to the RV.

Flathead Valley 

Flathead Valley

Snow

Zoey Hunting

 Wednesday we did the usual but also dumped our sewer again because we thought it smelled. Steve also checked the air vent on top of the RV - it was OK. We defrosted the freezer. Steve started working on re-stringing the blinds.

Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey we saw on our walk

Rock

Thursday we went did the chores then dropped off the trash on the way to Kalispell. In Kalispell we stopped at Gardner RV to get stuff to work on the blinds, then went to K-Mart (didn't buy anything), the next stop was lunch at McDonald's. We just wanted something quick. Then we got some rope at Lowe's to make a little barrier around our site so people won't walk through it. Next place was Walmart!  That is always fun. It was overcast when we left Bigfork , but the sun was out at Kalispell.. I think we are close enough to the Swan Mountain Range that it makes its own weather.

Hanging Flower Baskets in Kalispell

Friday was again overcast in the morning and then sunny! After chores and weed eating we went to Bigfork.  Hazel sent us some mail, and I needed to check the Fishing Access there. We also picked up chips and salsa for our supper of soft tacos.

Steve weed eating

Saturday  - it rained all day! Gloomy! Steve worked on blinds. We walked very little, I napped and read my book. I also helped Steve with the blinds (against my better judgement). He is finally happy with the one above the couch, Now he wanted to re-do the blind over the table. What fun! This is not something we enjoy, but it needed done.

Sunday the place was very busy! It was sunny and we had lots of boaters, swimmers, fishermen, paddlers and so on. The game warden came by and did some education about lifejackets with the folks here. He wanted some positive interaction. He handed out boating regs and talked to some folks. I don't think he gave out any citations. It was nice that he was here because it makes people behave!

Rope around our site

We have such a beautiful place to stay for the summer. We really can't believe how lucky we are to be in this special site.
I got my fitbit report today and we walked over 70,000 steps last week! Woo Hoo! We are working on trying to get our activity level up.

Monday, June 11 through Sunday, June 17, 2018 Routines

Monday was somewhat busy. We start everyday with walking the dogs and doing our chores here at the fishing/boat access. Today we also went to Walmart in Kalispell and got supplies. After we finished at Walmart we ate Pizza there at  Bullman's Wood Fired Pizza.   Funny thing is, they didn't have any ground beef topping for the pizza - it's all Canadian Bacon, Italian Sausage, chicken or other things.  It was good and we had enough left over for another meal!

Today we found a message in a bottle about 7:30 in the evening. We were excited to find it and read the message.

 The dock was under water and so we had a message in to our "boss" and the maintenance guy also.

They came down Tuesday and pulled it out so people don't have to wade in water to use the dock.
We did the usual chores. Steve also hammered in rebar that was sticking out of the cement curb stops in the parking lot. We also talked to Kristi on the phone.

Wednesday we did our chores and then I drove us to Whitefish, Montana and on to Hungry Horse Montana. We were going to walk the dogs at Whitefish Lake - but no dogs were allowed there. So we went on to Hungry Horse and stopped at the Huckleberry House to get our Huckleberry Ice Cream Cone! Boy was it good!  We also got the dogs a dish of vanilla ice cream. Then we toured Hungry Horse Dam and walked the dogs at a little picnic spot. The mosquitos tried to devour us on our little walk - so that didn't last long.

Thursday was overcast with rain and gusty winds. We did our regular chores and then worked on re-sringing one of our day/night shades - this took about 3 days off and on to totally finish. 

We had a nice fire and grilled hamburgers and potatoes out on our grill. We finished with a S'more! Yum.

Friday was basically more of the same with a run into Bigfork to get our mail package from Hazel. Also we always check the Bigfork Boating/Fishing Access when we go to town.  The week-end was slow because again it was rainy, and overcast. Overall we are enjoying our stay and the chores are minimal. We are walking a lot - usually 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day! WOW!

Supper cooking

House we see on our walks.

Echo Lake

Deer (brown spot in pic) seen on walk

Deer

Evening Sky at Echo Lake

The Weekend! Saturday & Sunday June 9th & 10th

Saturday we walked and did a good job on our chores. We did a lot of walking and picking up trash. We hauled off the trash from our bear safe trash bin to the container site. We checked on the Bigfork fishing/boating access.

These folks are towing a floating boat dock to their property. They did the same thing last night. Now they are adding one more floating dock.

This pontoon boat has a deck and a slide - looks like a party!

We returned to the RV and putzed around, then we took a nap. We woke up in time to watch the Belmont Stakes and see Justify win the Triple Crown! What a great race He led wire to wire. I really enjoyed watching it. Before it got dark we brought in the awning again. We still had people putting in and taking out boats at 11 PM. These folks must be dedicated.

This property is very near the fishing boating access in Bigfork. We see it every time we check that spot! It is a property that has availability for several couples/families. If you have some time to kill, check it out at www.beardancemontana.com. If I win the lottery I might consider buying it!

Sunday
The day is not over yet as I write this, but I don't expect too much traffic here today because it is windy, overcast, cool and rainy. So we will take it easy. I am catching up the blog and I also did some bill paying. Steve straightened up  the RV. I made us some chili, which is perfect for this weather. We will do our chores this afternoon and probably take a nap. You never know, but I would probably bet on the nap part.  It is usually a pretty sure thing! LOL

A Busy Day Friday, June 8th, 2018

We walked our dogs then picked up trash in the parking lot and beach area. It was nice - so we put the awning back out and sat outside. We took a nap. We talked to some of the people about getting off the dock - not swimming by it and not jumping off it.  Steve also put up an additional sign on the dock! Some listened and moved away. Some listened and didn't move away - we also talked to a family that had a charcoal grill and ensured that they will put it out.   We are not sure if they are allowed or not. We will have to ask Tony about that. We really aren't sure how much "educating" we are supposed to do about the dock area. It is dangerous when there are a lot of boats unloading and loading, so hopefully people know that. Also it seems everyone wants to get their boat out of the lake at the same time and they are not all patient and some are slow!  LOL!
I got in 10,000 steps today! WOW!

Here is a neat picture of a turtle on a log!